www.italianwinemerchants.com

The Magical Wines of Quintarelli

A Note from Sergio            

Once upon a time in a land just a few kilometers north of Verona, the town where Romeo danced with Juliet, there was a winding road, and on that road sat an unassuming cottage. There was nothing outwardly remarkable about this cottage. If you drove past it, you wouldn't notice it. But in this cottage of a mountain lived a good man, his cherub-faced wife, their daughters and their grandchildren--three generations all together in this modest cottage perched on the side of a hill.

The cottage, however innocuous it looked, had a secret. It wasn't in the saintly looks of the good man, though they gave you a clue. It wasn't in the kitchen, where the cherub-faced wife made beautiful food for the family to eat. It wasn't in the brood of lovely daughters. It wasn't even in the cottage, exactly. It was under it, in a magical cellar.

In this cozy and small cellar, fairies and angels and other magical beings lived among many barrels, all different sizes and all different colors. Some barrels were the perfect size to make wine for leprechauns; others were large enough to make wine for ogres. It was a happy, industrious, and very lovely cellar indeed.

Angels danced on the barrels, and fairies sprinkled fairy dust on them, and when it was time to bottle the wine--for the good man was a winemaker, and his wine, as his cellar would suggest, was magical--the fairies and the angels and sometimes the leprechauns would help tip the barrels to pour the murky, delicious liquid into bottles. Then the good man's daughters would write the names of the wine on the bottles, and the good man would send them out into the world. They were the most beautiful, harmonious, unique and magical wines in all the land, and they made people very happy.

Of course this is just a fairytale version of how I envision the wine cellar of Giuseppe Quintarelli. However, that last line is definitely true, and it's something that I guarantee my clients. In my estimation, Quintarelli wines are so good they're very nearly fairytales, something I tell my clients year in and year out. Even more fantastic is finding vintage Quintarelli of unquestionable provenance. The vintage Quintarelli Ca del Merlo that I'm offering today went directly from Quintarelli's cellar to being stored at the perfect temperature, humidity and angles, likewise his gorgeous Valpolicellas. With provenance like this, these wines are more than just a fairytale--they're a dream come true.

My Best,